As I navigate life, I see myself as Indian and American. I am Indian because I was born in India, was raised with Indian values, and have accumulated resistance to spice. I am American because I live in America, am taught American ideals, and enjoy football and burgers.
Struggling with loads of immigration restrictions, I have had many mental breakdowns over a future that doesn’t seem to be in my control. Although I’ve always felt American, I cannot vote, work a job, or even apply to many internships in this nation. But since my mom and I came to America nearly 16 years ago, I’ve grown up thinking I was equal to all of my peers; after all, we went to the same schools, were involved with the same clubs, and accessed similar opportunities.
It was not until my senior year of high school, however, that I realized the discrepancies in the immigration system. With only the first two years of my life spent in another country separating me from my friends, I had to check the “international” box on all my college applications. Beyond the physical discrepancies in the application, I found that being considered international meant I could be placed in a different applicant pool and could not receive federal aid or apply to many scholarships — all because I couldn’t fit the eligibility criteria of being a citizen or permanent resident.
After a reflective senior year, I found that my issue lies in something I lack: a green card.
So, What is a Green Card?
Holding a green card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, allows one to live and work permanently in the United States. Permanent resident status comes with a wide variety of benefits: pathway to citizenship, security in America, meeting the qualifications for scholarships, internships, and jobs, and so much more.
Trust me, naturalization is not an easy process: While my family has been in America for nearly 16 years, we have barely made much progress in our journey for citizenship. At some points, it felt as if we were doing everything right — paying our taxes, following civilian duties, being involved in the community — but we still couldn’t vote, live with certainty about our future, or avoid filling out mountains of paperwork.
In a broader sense, more than 100,000 documented immigrants are stuck in similar situations. Many under the documented immigration system arrive in the United States based on a family (F) or employment category (EB). My family, for example, arrived due to my dad’s job, placing us under the employment category. In addition to categorization based on reasons for coming to America, there are also separations based on nationality. Immigrants from countries such as India and China face a large queue to obtain green cards due to the influx of workers arriving from their home countries.
Wait, There’s More: The Green Card Backlog
As a result of these large queues, the term “green card backlog” was coined to describe the situation of immigrants who are waiting with little guarantee in hopes of a green card. The current issue is that the number of green cards available is not proportional to the vast amount of immigrants coming to the U.S., resulting in a lengthy wait for the most basic aspects of the American dream.
The backlog affects not only the first generation of immigrants but also the children in those families. Since their children are also forced to reapply for a green card, they are stuck in the backlog once again — even if they were raised in America for the majority of their life.
Throughout this process, I’ve wondered why the system works the way it does; after all, it seems that most legislators are in agreement that the immigration system is broken. Whether Democrat or Republican, politicians appear to come to the consensus that we have to fix the system, but the problem lies in the simple fact that we don’t know how.
With so many terms coined for the sake of labeling immigrants (legal, illegal, “job stealers,” etc.) in attempts to pit them against each other like pawns in a much larger game, the people at the core of this issue have found themselves in a hopeless situation. The large desire for change combined with the lack of legislation prompts the question: why isn’t anything getting fixed?
A Stalemate
While immigration continues to affect the lives of many millions, its more narrow scope — one that affects only documented immigrants — is rarely spoken of. With the division of documented and undocumented immigrants, the former seems to be forgotten — hence the label “forgotten Dreamers,” referring to the group of children who live with immigration restrictions but have yet to find a solution. There always seems to be a more pressing issue to worry about, but new advocacy has shown that immigration is no longer an issue to place at the backburner of legislation; instead, it’s been one of the key deciding issues in recent elections, both at the national and local level.
In fact, Joe Biden has expressed his commitment to push immigration changes to the forefront of his administration’s policy, meaning there may soon be a stop to the era of band-aid fixes or superficial rhetoric changes — hopefully.
The Long-Awaited Legislation
As a potential true fix, the newly introduced U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 urges reform in not only creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals but also increasing the “efficiency of various employment-based immgrant processes,” according to the National Law Review. Most importantly, these changes would include catalyzing the process for many documented immigrants to attain citizenship. Such a bill hopes to protect immigrants, with the added benefit of a boosted economy as well.
In addition to the Citizenship Act, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C.,with Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa., Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., have proposed the CHILDREN Act. Sparked by the advocacy of a student immigration group named Improve the Dream, the bill, among many endeavors, creates a clear path for citizenship, eliminates the aging out policy, and allows employment for “documented Dreamers.” If passed, the CHILDREN Act has the potential to solve much of the stress that “forgotten Dreamers” face today.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
With a plethora of pushes for active change in the immigrant community instead of passive speeches, those stuck in the green card backlog have their fingers crossed for a solution within the next five years. As so many different voices begin to make themselves heard, legislators need to focus on reforming processes surrounding legal immigration, an issue that has stayed on the backburner for far too long.
Hopefully, hundreds of thousands of kids just like me will soon be able to see themselves as both Indian and American — instead of playing tug-of-war between the two.
Image by Henry Thong is licensed under the Unsplash License.
